


Postcards From Fairy

by Ariss_Tenoh



Category: Sentou Yousei Yukikaze | Battle Fairy Snowstorm
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 12:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1132642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariss_Tenoh/pseuds/Ariss_Tenoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of Jack and Rei's life on Fairy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Morning Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written per Paxnirvana's request on the Jack/Rei LJ comm around October 2005. 
> 
> Each part can stand on its own and I intend to add to the story whenever inspiration strikes.

Jack woke up slowly and twisted his body on the bed trying to get back to sleep. The shrill voice of his alarm clock told him what it thought of that. He slapped the top of his alarm clock and it went blessedly silent. 

 

He sighed and sat up. For a moment, he panicked when he didn't see Rei. He rubbed one eye to make sure and found Rei buried beneath the covers so that only a tuft of black hair was visible.

 

Jack smiled and stepped out of bed to fix the coffee and wash up.

 

When he walked into what was essentially his apartment's living room, he couldn't suppress a wince. The place looked like a hurricane had passed through. He bent picking up tissues, wrappers, beer cans, and other assorted garbage as he cleared a path to the kitchen. 

 

The familiar motions of finding the coffee jar, sugar, spoon and mugs soothed Jack. There was so little in their lives here on Fairy that could be called predictable. 

 

He pushed that gloomy thought from his mind when Rei walked out of the bedroom. One moody pessimistic person in this relationship was enough.

 

Wearing a worn and pale pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, Rei padded on bare feet to seat himself on one of the high stools near the counter.

 

_Beautiful_ Jack looked at him and smiled absently.

 

_You've got it bad, Bukhar._ A part of Jack's mind commented in a perfect pitch of cynicism.

 

Jack took a long sip of coffee and suppressed a snort.

 

_As if that was ever in doubt_

 

Rei was watching him with a quizzical look in his grey eyes.

 

Jack stepped around the counter and sat beside Rei.

 

"Just thinking." He told Rei.

 

His lover gave him one of those looks that communicated how strange he thought Jack was, which Jack quite resented because he wasn't the one having an affair with a jet fighter for god's sake!, and leaned forward to pillow his head on his arms.

 

"Are you all right?" Jack put a hand on Rei's forehead.

 

"Mmmmm." Rei didn't move.

 

"You're running a fever." 

 

"It's nothing." Rei denied it as he denied all his medical problems.

 

"If it gets any worse, you're off duty for the day."

 

_That_ was met with a glare of Rei-like intensity.

 

"That's an order." Jack tried not to smirk but failed anyway. Sometimes it was good to boss his lover.

 

Rei gave a long suffering sigh. "You enjoyed that." There was a distinct accusatory tone to his words.

 

"If you took better care of yourself, I wouldn't have to do this all the time." Jack reached for Rei's pale green mug. "Coffee?" He asked.

 

Rei nodded.

 

A hand touched his right arm and glided over his dragon tattoo. Jack shuddered at the sensual feel of it.

 

"Maybe you should wear a shirt, Jack." Rei looked at Jack with a distinct twinkle in his eyes.

 

He slid the mug towards Rei. "I'm not going to catch a cold, Rei. If that's what you mean." The major gave his lover a stern look.

 

Rei smiled and held his mug between both hands as if to warm them. Jack frowned slightly. Rei didn't notice but looked out the apartment's big window instead. The artificial weather system was simulating late morning.

 

Jack leaned against the counter and for the first time in a long time, felt himself relaxing. He had a good cup of coffee in his hands, Rei was sitting safe and whole by his side, and there hadn't been any suspicious JAM activities for nearly a week now. 

 

Blue eyes smiled. Life was good.


	2. But a Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you must surrender a battle to make sure you don't lose the war.

Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. Ah, the wonders of being promoted to major. Sometimes Jack wasn't sure if his promotion was a career advancement or a curse. But it kept him out of the sky and out of planes so he couldn't complain. 

 

It was a slow day with reports from various departments filtering their way towards him for added suggestions or approval. He had a vague disquiet feeling that had been building since he woke up this morning. Perhaps he should have been grateful that the situation on Fairy was calm lately, yet like every soldier on the base he was becoming _twitchy_. Not really from lack of action but from the illogical feeling that "something was coming" which all war veterans acquired when things got too quiet for their liking. 

 

Jack leaned back on his chair and sighed.

 

Suddenly, the phone rang. The ringing tone was so loud in the silent office that Jack dropped his pen on the floor.

 

He picked it up. "Bukhar here."

 

"Major, it's Lt. Chang from the garage sir."

 

_The Garage_ was the nickname the pilots and staff gave to the maintenance crew in charge of looking after the SAF jets.

 

"Yes, Lieutenant?" 

 

"Sir, it's Lt. Fukai. I'm not sure what's wrong but I think he passed out in B-3's cockpit. We can't get him out. B-3 keeps flashing on its new JAM detection system. It's probably a malfunction since the system hasn't been properly tested yet." The man spoke in that rapid way all mechanics did, full of technical jargon that he thought everyone understood. "Err.. the guys thought it might be a good idea if we called you sir," he faltered, "Because you're Lt. Fukai's superior."

 

_Superior, my ass._ Jack grumbled silently in the confines of his mind. It was the most ill-kept secret in the entire base that he was Rei's lover. _Or just that we're sleeping together._ And no one wanted to antagonize Rei when they knew how paranoid _(read "aggressive and hostile" Jack's mind commented)_ he could get when anyone mentioned Yukikaze. 

 

"I'll be down there in a minute." He told the man and promptly hung up. 

 

He could have taken a look at the hangar from his office's window. The situation was better if he handled it personally though. Jack walked to one of his cabinets and grabbed a few things, then marched down to the hangar.

 

Whereupon he spotted Edith Foss, the lovely psychologist in charge of dissecting the inner workings of Rei's mind, standing safely twenty meters away from a Yukikaze which was flashing red every five seconds. 

 

_The day's just getting better and better. What the hell was I complaining about?_ Sarcasm dripped heavily in Jack's mind. It was too bad he couldn't direct it at any unwilling victim.

 

She spotted him and headed to intercept him. The sound of her high heels clicking almost obscenely off the hangar's echoing walls. 

 

"Major Bukhar," she said unnecessarily, "I have an appointment with Lt. Fukai this morning. He didn't show up." Her eyes looked at him as if it was his fault Rei didn't go to the session. 

 

_You didn't really believe he'd show up for your tête-à-tête’s, did you?_ Jack didn't say it out loud though. Ah, the things one got away with when they had Rei's personality. 

 

"I'm sure it slipped his mind, doctor." Jack's tone was perfectly pitched to convey a mixture of regret and conciliation. 

 

Not that it worked on a shrink of course. 

 

Her eyes flashed. "Major, are you aware than this is the second time Lt.Fukai hasn't attended? He can't fly without my clearance." 

 

Jack bit back a sharp retort. His bad mood fled and a sense of sadness permeated him as he realized she was just as helpless in the face of Rei and Yukikaze as he was.

 

"Doctor Foss, your sessions are only required red tape. He doesn't need your approval to fly. We both know that." Jack said quietly to her. He watched her face crumble and noticed how impossibly young she looked. He was reminded again that although she held a Captain's rank and privileges, she'd never flown more than the required amount of hours to earn the rank. No battle experience. 

 

He strode over to the group of mechanics standing near Yukikaze. 

 

An Asian man stepped over to him and introduced himself as Lt.Chang.

 

"Sir, I'm glad you're here. We don't know what's wrong and we can't turn B-3's alarm off." The man walked beside him until they both stopped at about 3 metres from the plane. 

 

Jack looked at the plane and resisted the urge to sigh. 

 

"Think of it as a dog barking when you get too close to its owner," he said dryly and left the man behind.

 

He could feel the mechanic's confused gaze on his back as he climbed the ladder to Yukikaze's cockpit.

 

Rei was slumped to one side in the cockpit. Laptop and a dozen screens open. Jack leaned over and typed in the password he held as the captain in charge of the Boomerang squadron. He had no illusions Yukikaze could choose to override his commands if it wished, it often did where Rei was concerned. 

 

The screens's light dimmed and Jack closed the laptop and shifted it to one side to take its weight off Rei's lap. He held the thin grey blanket he brought from his office and tucked it around Rei's body. There was a plain stainless-steel thermos with tomato and noodles soup and he placed it in another nook near Rei but far enough that the man wouldn't knock it if he moved in his sleep.

 

Yukikaze's main cockpit camera followed Jack's every move.

 

Jack staightened and looked directly into the camera's lense.

 

"He's got a fever, it's not serious but he should rest. Make sure he eats the soup and leaves when his shift ends." Human ears couldn't hear his words but a sophisticated electronic surveillance system like Yukikaze's would pick it up easily. 

 

His hand touched Rei's forehead. It was warm but not dangerous enough to haul the moody pilot to the med wing yet. He hated the fact that he couldn't kiss his lover or offer him any gesture of comfort.

 

Jack strode down the metal ladder. He left instructions with Chang not to disturb Rei and that Yukikaze would shut down on its own by the end of the shift. Chang breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Jack. There was enough sincerity in his voice to make Jack wonder what Rei did to the garage staff to make them all so wary of him. It was probably a subject best left unspoken. 

 

He crossed the hangar's floor heading back to his office when he saw that the dear doctor hadn't left yet. He passed her by and headed for the elevator.

 

She marched right after him.

 

"Major, the staff tells me Lt.Fukai has a fever and you're leaving him there. He should be in medical getting treatment, not sleeping in the cockpit!" 

 

Jack stopped in front of the elevator and hit the UP button. He kept his eyes firmly on the elevator's metallic doors.

 

Dr.Foss didn't seem inclined to stop her lecture anytime soon and Jack was getting a touch sick himself of handling Rei and his trail of problems.

 

"Are you telling me you want to try prying a pilot from his armed SAF jet, doctor?" The question was rhetorical and they both knew it.

 

It stopped her in the mid of her tirade though and a minute passed where the major and doctor stared at one another. 

 

"Foss," Jack said using the military tone of one superior gently rebuking his underlings, "Sometimes you've got to lose a battle to win the war." 

 

Foss's cheeks reddened and she wouldn't meet his gaze. He thought her white doctor's coat looked a bit too big on her at that moment.

 

The elevator decided too late to open it doors and Jack escaped into the metal box.

 

He leaned against the far wall and banged his head back into it. 

 

He knew very well that he'd never win any war with Yukikaze when Rei was the stakes. He wasn't going to lose though. He'd go back to his apartment later, clean it up, make more food for the invalid coming in the afternoon, and haul Rei to bed and tie him there until he got better.

 

Jack pushed his shoulders back and left the elevator. A smile on his face in time to greet the latest secretary bearing more paperwork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For (tripoverhercats) who asked for "Jack, Yukikaze, acceptance". This follows after **Morning Coffee**.


	3. World Weave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She held the key in her hand...

Rei sat on a crate just within the hangar's doors, watching Fairy's sky. He knew the green colour disconcerted many people, some even called it a bad omen, especially when the skies shifted into a mixture of reds and greens. He liked it, though. To him it seemed as if the skies were alive, it made them more beautiful and desirable. To know that he flew among something that knew he was there. He'd heard sailors say something similar about the oceans and seas on Earth.

 

He turned his head to the left and wasn't surprised to see her there. She was always near, nor was he surprised to see her sitting on thin air. He knew she only went through the pretence to appear 'normal' in his world. Rei considered telling her a person needed a physical or material object to sit on, but dismissed the idea as soon as it occurred to him. 

 

She was special and he liked her just the way she was.

 

They sat together in companionable silence. Rei felt his usual tension ease. It was so nice to be around someone who didn't expect him to talk incessantly.

 

He felt her move and turned to look at her.

 

She held a key in her hands.....

 

Rei turned around fully and looked at her.

 

Her golden hair trailed behind her, like it was unaware of its considerable length. The green silk gown she wore seemed to be a part of her, a second skin. Not her own pale green eyes, or paler skin stood out to Rei. No, that belonged to her translucent wings.

 

His gaze went to the key in her outstretched hand. Her gaze was firm, non-judgemental. Almost alien in its infinite patience.

 

"I know," he spoke the words softly, even if she didn't need to hear them for she could simply pluck them from his mind. 

 

She understood. Her snowy fingers closed upon the key and she disappeared; not gradually but instantly. Anyone else would have doubted his mind or her presence, but not Rei.

 

Rei watched the green sky, the grey tarmac of the landing strip, and the little red lights that lined it.

 

For a single moment, the world melted into black. Its weave unravelling at an alarming speed.

 

Rei blinked... and all was right with the world again.

 

Yes, Rei understood. It would be happening soon.

 

But Jack wouldn't.


End file.
